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Actors Jaycee Chan and Kai Ko arrested on drug charges

KO BLOW? Ko has been arrested in Beijing on drug-related charges. It could end his career in China as artiste management companies in China have signed an undertaking not to hire stars with a drug history.

Chan and his friend were detained by Beijing police, Hong Kong's South China Morning Post cited Beijing News and Beijing Times as saying.

China Central Television also confirmed Ko's arrest in a report yesterday afternoon, following a rumour on the Internet on Sunday night and claims by Ko's manager that he was unable to contact the actor.

Apple Daily Taiwan cited an unnamed source as saying both Ko, 23, and Chan, 31, were nabbed in Beijing late last Tuesday night.

According to the Post, neither Chan nor Ko, who shot to fame playing a charming schoolboy besotted with his classmate in 2011's You Are The Apple Of My Eye, had updated their Weibo social media accounts since last Tuesday.

Meanwhile, Sohu.com cited the manager of Jackie Chan, who is well known for promoting anti-drug abuse, as saying his son was unlikely to be involved with drugs.

Confirmation of the arrests followed a deepening mystery when calls and messages by reporters to Ko's boss Angie Chai and Giddens Ko, who directed You Are The Apple Of My Eye, went unanswered.

Ko's arrest could spell the end of his career in China, reported Apple Daily. Recently, artiste management companies in China signed an undertaking not to hire stars with a drug history, it said.

This article by The Straits Times was published in MyPaper, a free, bilingual newspaper published by Singapore Press Holdings.